Blake Lively is addressing the domestic violence in her new film It Ends With Us – after fans slammed her ‘tone deaf’ and ‘shallow’ promotion of the drama.
Adapted from the popular Colleen Hoover novel of the same name, It Ends With Us follows Lily Bloom (Lively) as she finds herself in an abusive relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni).
Despite the film’s serious theme, the promotional tour sold an entirely different story — as it focused largely on It Ends With Us’ flowery, romantic elements as well as Lively’s creative involvement.
Lively appeared to acknowledge the criticism Tuesday by publishing a statement to her Instagram Story along with a violence against women PSA.
‘Thank you to everyone who came out to show that people WANT to see films about women and the multitudes we hold. It Ends With Us is a story of the female experience. All the highest highs, and lowest lows. And we are so proud of it,’ penned the Gossip Girl alum.
She continued: ‘We have been in celebration of this film and of getting a message so important out there to the masses.
Blake Lively has finally addressed the domestic violence in her new film It Ends With Us – after fans slammed her ‘tone deaf’ and ‘shallow’ promotion of the drama; seen on August 8
Adapted from the popular Colleen Hoover novel of the same name, It Ends With Us follows Lily Bloom (Lively) as she finds herself in an abusive relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni)
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‘Thank you all for embracing @itendswithusmovie with the same love, pain and joy we had sharing it with you all.’
Lively wrote her message overtop an interview clip from the London premiere of It Ends With Us, where she described her character as a ‘survivor’ whose life isn’t ‘defined’ by the harm that was done to her.
‘This move covers domestic violence but what’s important about this film is that she is not just a survivor and she’s not just a victim,’ she told BBC News on Friday.
‘And while those are huge things to be, they’re not her identity.
‘She defines herself and I think that’s deeply empowering to remind people that no one else can define you. No experience can define you, you define you,’ Lively explained.
In a follow-up post on her Instagram Story Tuesday, Lively shared statistics relating to domestic violence in the United States and provided fans with a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
‘1 in 4 women aged 18 and older in the US alone have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime,’ her statement began.
‘Intimate partner violence affects all genders, including more than 12 million people every year in the United States. Everyone deserves relationships free from domestic violence.
‘The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides confidential support 24/7/365,’ wrote Lively, who then linked access to the hotline.
She also encouraged those who need ‘immediate help’ to ‘text “START” to 88788.’
It Ends With Us hit theaters last Friday — competing with Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds’ superhero flick Deadpool & Wolverine at the box office — after weeks of global promo.
But Lively has been facing flack for her lighthearted interviews about the film despite its serious message.
She was blasted as ‘shallow’ and ‘tone deaf’ for her part in a recent chat with co-stars Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer and It Ends With Us author Hoover.
The four women giggled together as they discussed everything from their dream jobs to their zodiac signs, but there was no mention of domestic violence during their chat.
And social media users were quick to slam them – particularly Blake, who hosted the interview – for partaking in the breezy questionnaire given the serious nature of the film.
Blake kicked off the interview by asking her costars what their professions would be if they hadn’t chosen acting or, in Colleen’s case, writing.
Colleen said she’d want to be a chef while Isabela explained that she’d be ‘riding horses all the time.’
Lively appeared to address the criticism Tuesday by publishing a lengthy statement to Instagram
In a follow-up post on her Instagram Story, Lively shared statistics relating to domestic violence in the United States and provided fans with a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline
Jenny then revealed that she was terrified of horses, explaining that their hooves and ‘butts’ made her uncomfortable.
Everyone erupted in laughter as she added, ‘Their butts are shiny, it kills me. Ponytail out of the butt, it’s crazy.’
After that, Blake asked each of them to share their zodiac signs so they could figure out ‘how compatible they are’ with one another.
Next, she asked, ‘What would be a good addition to the human body?’
‘I would like another arm. Three hands working the keyboard? Wow,’ Colleen answered, while Jenna pondered that she’d love some wings.
‘We didn’t talk about our movie at all. Thanks for joining us,’ Blake concluded.
‘I think that will sell the film,’ Jenny added with a laugh.
Blake shared a video of the interview to her Instagram account last week, which she captioned with, ‘Becoming friends with [Jenny Slate] and all of these women [Colleen Hoover and Isabela Ferrer] is the best thing to come out of [It Ends With Us] for me.
‘And that’s saying A LOT because I couldn’t be more proud of this film. I’m gonna be sad when marketing is over and I don’t have excuses to sit on my couch dressed up with you ladies.’
Immediately, outraged viewers flocked to the comment section to criticize them.
‘I’m very confused. You missed the entire purpose of the movie. I’m sad and disappointed,’ one person wrote.
‘This is a movie about abuse, can you promote please appropriately?’ another asked.
Someone else added, ‘Blake is only here for the fashion and that’s all. She ain’t interested in the message this movie brings. Shallow.’
‘As someone who has read the book, as someone who liked Blake, and as a DV survivor… to say that this is so disappointing would be an understatement,’ a fourth comment read.
A fifth said, ‘This is the most tone deaf thing I’ve ever seen. This movie is about domestic violence, why are you promoting it like it’s a Barbie movie?’
‘When are you gonna talk about domestic violence? Trying to play this movie off as a fun romcom is wrong and disgusting,’ a different user scathed.
‘We don’t wanna hear about shows and your new hair care routine we wanna hear about the victims and how prevalent domestic violence remains in society. You have been given a platform, use it.’
‘The way you’ve chosen to market this movie is a real shame and feels like an insult to DV survivors,’ someone else said.
‘Really disappointed and hard to believe the author would support it.’
‘Very disappointed in the way you are promoting this movie. I loved you as an actress but won’t be watching any of your movies anymore,’ another person declared.
‘You are being tone deaf about domestic violence. This could of been a huge opportunity to bring awareness to DV and you choose to blatantly ignore it.’
It Ends With Us hit theaters last Friday — competing with Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds’ superhero flick Deadpool & Wolverine at the box office — after weeks of global promo
But Lively has been facing flack for her lighthearted interviews about the film despite its serious message; seen on August 8
‘As a well meaning fan: this Girl Talk session reinforced multiple stereotypes about women, and doesn’t address the single most important theme in your film: domestic abuse,’ a different angry viewer wrote.
‘You can use this moment for a felonies reckoning, to make some difference in countless lives, to encourage and support women to speak up.
‘But you’re focusing on flowers and hair-care and outfits. Women are more than this, we deserved better from you.’
Others said they were ‘team Justin,’ referencing an alleged feud between Blake and the actor.
Rumors of tensions brewing between Justin, 40 – who on top of starring in it also directed and served as one of the producers for the film – and the blonde beauty have been swirling for weeks after fans noticed the two failed to do any press together leading up to the film’s release.
In addition, the on-screen love interests were not pictured together at the US premiere last week.
Eagle-eyed social media users also noticed that both Blake and author Colleen unfollowed Justin on Instagram recently.
To make matters more suspicious, actress Jenny completely dodged a question about Justin on the red carpet at the event.
‘What was it like having [Justin] be director but also a scene partner?’ a Deadline reporter asked the star.
‘I mean what an intense job to have to do so many things,’ she replied. ‘I found myself being like, “Wow, I just want to have one job at once.”
‘I’ve often felt that way, I really like writing and it’s special to be able to be a writer but I was looking around like, “Yeah I’m good with just acting.” I love it.’
A source told DailyMail.com recently that Blake and Justin clashed over his ‘dismissive’ attitude to her ‘input’ while they were filming scenes that involved abuse.
The insider claimed that Justin only focused on ‘what he believed was the abusive male viewpoint’ and had a very ‘chauvinistic’ approach to the topic.
‘During scenes depicting abuse, Justin failed to consider Blake’s character’s perspective, instead focusing solely on what he believed was the abusive male viewpoint,’ they said.
‘His approach was very chauvinistic, creating a tense atmosphere on set.’
The source claimed Justin was ‘borderline abusive’ on set, and said he ‘almost became the character.’
‘Justin almost became the character in the sense that some women on set felt he was borderline abusive to them and that he was unprofessional and unapologetic,’ they said.
‘Directing a film so serious and so important about domestic abuse without allowing the women to be included in this process is disturbing.’
Rumors of tensions brewing between Justin Baldoni – who on top of starring in it also directed and served as one of the producers for the film – and Lively have been swirling for weeks after fans noticed the two failed to do any press together leading up to the film’s release; seen on August 6
A source told DailyMail.com recently that Blake and Justin clashed over his ‘dismissive’ attitude to her ‘input’ while they were filming scenes that involved abuse
While making the movie, Justin teamed up with nonprofit organization No More, which ‘focuses on combating domestic and sexual violence.’
‘Justin really wanted to know more of the details about intimate partner violence and wanted to make sure that he was representing it as accurately and sensitively as possible,’ a No More executive told The Wrap.
‘We didn’t want [the scenes depicting abuse] to be too difficult necessarily for an audience to see, but we also wanted them to be clear of what was going on.’
He spoke about the difficulties of portraying a domestic violence relationship on screen with CBS Mornings last week.
He admitted that ‘as a man,’ he came with ‘his own biases’ on the topic, but insisted he ‘made sure the film had a female gaze.’
‘As a man, I’m always going to come with my own biases. It’s one of the reasons I was afraid to direct this movie, let alone act in it,’ he said.
‘I wanted to make sure this film always had a female gaze and I was never putting myself into it.’